Australians have suffered their deepest decline in material living standards in modern history. Real per capita household disposable income has collapsed by more than 8% since the Albanese government took office in Q2 2022, the sharpest decline on record. Australia’s decline in real per capita household disposable income has been among the worst in the
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the consumer price index (CPI) for Q4 2024, which printed below the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) expectations. Three of the Big Four banks forecast that the pivotal “trimmed mean” inflation would be 0.5% in Q4. The fourth Big Four bank (Westpac) was only slightly higher, tipping
Much of the Western World is rapidly deindustrialising to meet ‘net zero’ emissions targets. For Example, the United Kingdom’s stringent restrictions on fossil fuel energy use have driven up energy costs, resulting in sharp contractions in all energy-intensive industries. The same deindustrialisation is happening in Germany, following similar “net zero” policies. Australians are also being
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has committed to reducing permanent migration to 140,000 a year if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election. However, immigration influencer Abul Rizvi has led a group of pro-mass immigration shills warning against the cut, claiming that it is unworkable and would harm the economy. Rizvi argues that cutting the permanent
The Market Ear on the Deepseek effect. Just fine Other than the impact of the largest US stock nearly entering a bear market in one day, plus some collateral damage in other large stocks, the broader market held up just fine. The S&P 500 fell less than 1.5%, the Dow rose 0.7%, and the CBOE
I’m not sure where the rebar rally is coming from. There’s nothing much going on for demand. Perhaps it is the very weak seasonal restock. The Steel PMI ain’t it. Markets are very short ferrous so maybe that’s it. The outlook for rebar is terrible as China goes off the completions cliff, but perhaps steel
I’m assuming most readers are at least somewhat aware of DeepSeek over the past week, which culminated in a large sell-off in AI stocks on Monday. I thought it worth putting down some thoughts about where this may go. Quick background A small Chinese company, DeepSeek, released a large language model that matches or betters
Wall Street rebounded overnight from its Deepseek AI start of week dramas with tech stocks rebounding while other industrials were largely unchanged as they absorbed the latest macroeconomic news in the US and await the next FOMC meeting. FX markets were largely unmoved as well, absorbing the post weekend volatility and even more Trump Tariff
Already? DXY is back. AUD flamed out. Auld lead boots is back. Commods got tariffed. Miners ouch. EM so yetserday. Junk trying to throw some fuel on risk. As yields ease. Stocks rebounded. It’s hard to see how much further a DXY correction can get when El Trumpo fires off daily tariff warnings. Credit Agricole
Domain published the following chart showing how Melbourne house values have risen far quicker than unit values. “A typical house in Melbourne cost buyers 51.1% – or $310,202 – more than a unit in December 2024, according to CoreLogic data”, the article reads. “That has more than doubled since December 2014, when the gap was